The Habitats Trust Lauded Wildlife Conservation Efforts as it announced Winners for 2022

New Delhi [India], December 19 (ANI/BusinessWire India): The Habitats Trust, founded by Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of HCLTech announced the recipients of The Habitats Trust Grants 2022 today at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. The Habitats Trust Grants is an annual initiative by The Habitats Trust to honour and support organizations and individuals, who share a common goal of conserving India's natural, indigenous habitats and species, especially those that are lesser-known, and thus often neglected habitats. The 2022 edition of The Habitats Trust Grants awarded a total of Rs. 1.25 crores across the two categories- THT Conservation Grant and THT Action Grant. The recipients included The Forest Way and Gurukul Botanical Sanctuary (awarded Rs. 1 crore under THT Conservation Grant category and Ashoka Trust for Research and Econogy, Bombay Natural History Society, The ERDS Foundation, H.T. Lalremsanga who were awarded Rs. 25 lakhs in THT Action Grant category.

Congratulating the THT Grant recipients, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Founder & Trustee of The Habitats Trust said, "The world is finally realising that loss of biodiversity not just impacts climate but can also cause grave consequences to human health, wildlife, economy, and food security. Considering the same concerns, The Habitats Trust is working with conservationists who proactively work towards the mission of protecting endangered and vulnerable lesser-known species and their habitats. As part of our commitment, we are honoured to be extending our support to this year's selected projects that are working towards restoring and protecting critical ecosystems. Our teams will further work with the recipients to help build their capacity and strengthen their governance structures to attract more philanthropic and CSR donors."

Rushikesh Chavan, Head of The Habitats Trust added, "India is an incredible and biodiverse country, with different ecosystems - marine, terrestrial, wetlands and many others. Each of these spaces faces its own set of unique challenges at a very local level but ones that have a global impact, be it around biodiversity, climate change or policy. Initiatives like the Habitats Trust Grants, allow us to support people who are working to solve these problems at the ground level. This works in many ways - it increases awareness around biodiversity as well as helps promotes human well-being. I believe we can take great strides toward a healthier ecosystem through initiatives like The Habitats Trust Grants."

The Grants aim to recognize and support holistic, innovative, and replicable conservation projects by organizations and individual's basis clear parameters of measurable impact, strategy, scalability as well as stakeholder evaluation.







While the above categories are awarded annually, The Trust introduced a third category this year, called the THT Seed Grant, which is awarded monthly. This rolling grant is awarded to conservation projects designed towards developing topical conservation interventions such as rapid assessments, development of new or testing of methodologies, protection of critical habitats from threats, etc. The first THT Seed Grant was awarded to two grantees in August 2022; Feather Library from Ahmedabad and Nagpur Centre for Peoples' Forum. The second THT Seed Grant was awarded in October 2022 to Conservation Himalayas, for their project 'Augmenting areal movement of Golden langur against the linear infrastructure.'

The Grants' recipients were selected through a rigorous four-stage process that considered the expected impact, relevance and scalability of the project; the applicants' capacity to deliver and finally the sustainability of their proposed work. The Trust received 81 applications this year. The Sub-Jury members evaluated 35 applicants on field, out of which 16 were chosen as finalists after a thorough due diligence process was conducted by Grant Thornton Bharat, The Habitats Trust's audit partners.

The recipients of the Grants were chosen from a total of 16 finalists by an eminent jury that included - Bahar Dutt, Wildlife Biologist, Author and Environmental Journalist; Brian Heath, Founder and CEO for the Mara Triangle Conservation Area, Kenya; Dr M. K. Ranjitsinh, Wildlife Expert and architect of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, and Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson HCLTech and Founder and Trustee, The Habitats Trust.

While The Habitats Trust awarded full financial grants to 5 recipients across two categories, other finalists were also awarded 10 per cent of the grant amount in their respective categories, to ensure that their efforts and work is recognized.
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